OpalescentGold: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Moon

This is how the Moon came to be.

(Re)Birth

In an unidentifiable location of Japan, a woman named Cynthia, the founder of the Cervello and the former Vongola Adviser, dies years after her Sky with a peaceful smile on her lips, long lavender pink hair splayed across the cold ground and eyes as pale as the full moon fading to the pull of oblivion.

Some few hundred years later, in a location of Japan now known as Namimori, a baby named Noriko is born, a red-faced, squalling child with a head of platinum blonde hair and blue-grey eyes firmly squeezed shut as she screams her hurt displeasure to the unfamiliar world that lies before her.

Adjustment

The girl people call Reiki Noriko wanders this new life in a daze. The first six months are a whirlwind of new sensations and new perceptions, few of which are familiar and comforting. She cries and cries for the longest time, yearning for a home that doesn't exist anymore.

Mother

Noriko generally comes to recognize the smiling, gentle woman with long black hair and warm blue eyes as her mother. It is strange, but she eventually comes to care for Reiki Kiku. It is hard not to, for this is the one who feeds her and clothes her, sings lullabies to her at night and laughs with her during the day.

Father

It takes Noriko some time to recognize her father as the stoic-looking man with tired lines on his face who comes home late every night. He has dark eyes and pale hair, but his smile is kind. She only figures it out when Kiku beams and kisses Reiki Yoshio on the cheek, showing him to the dinner table laden with plates and dishes.

Daytime

In the daytime, Noriko is alright. She claps her hands and learns to crawl and follows her mother around like a baby chick. She can focus on the not-familiar things around her, even though she feels oddly off-balance and uncertain.

Nighttime

In the nighttime, Noriko dreams. She sees a man - safe, reassuring, home - with a flame on his forehead and an outstretched hand, orange eyes soft and warm. She reaches forward desperately - and wakes up in confused tears.

Kiku

This is what she does.

Love

Kiku loves her daughter. Even when Noriko wakes up every night crying and takes hours to calm down, Kiku loves her. Even when Noriko looks around Kiku like she is searching for someone else, Kiku loves her. Even when Noriko sometimes gazes at the window as if she will run away, Kiku loves her.

It is a mother's love and it will never be extinguished.

Child

Most of the time, Noriko acts like a regular child. She throws tantrums and plays with her toys. She chews on her pacifier when teething starts, wobbles and lurches when it is time at last for her to learn how to walk. She laughs and screams and grins.

Adult

But sometimes, Noriko is silent for far too long, staring into the distance with a troubled frown that belongs on no toddler's face. There is a weight to her quiet, a sadness to her tears that bothers Kiku, yet there is nothing she can possibly do.

Husband

Yoshio is a busy man. They are no wealthy family. He must work hard to keep them fed and she knows that. Still, it hurts when he can barely spare fifteen words for her when he comes home at nine o'clock at night. Kiku is fairly certain that their child misses her father.

Family

Kiku is the one who keeps the family tied together. She takes care of her baby and her husband both, cleans the household and provides the warmth. She knows it all too well and dreads the day she can no longer hold together under the strain.

Yoshio

This is how he endures.

Money

Yoshio loves his family. He does. It is why he wakes up at six in the morning everyday and arrives at his low-paying job with perfect punctuality. It is why he goes home at nine in the evening everyday without fail and almost immediately collapses in bed.

It is the money he makes that keeps his small family afloat.

Wife

Yoshio adores Kiku. He first met her during middle school as a classmate. It didn't take them long to become close friends after a school project. They became lovers in high school and then married after graduation. He knows his absence burdens her and thinks himself unworthy of her.

Still, he cannot help but be selfish and wish that they will one day be buried next to each other.

Baby

Noriko is a mystery to Yoshio. He loves her as one might love a painting, with wild fervor and complete ignorance. She befuddles him, but she is his baby girl, she is his lovely daughter. He treasures that one time he went home early and swung her up in the air, the surprised chime of her laughter a new and wonderful joy.

Word

"Tou-chan!" Noriko blurts out mere days after she addresses Kiku as "Kaa-chan," and Yoshio grins widely and twirls her around in circles, happily drifting through the rest of the day on cloud nine.

He is blissfully ignorant to the fact that the babbling she spewed out in the first few months were actually an attempt at a name. What could 'Giii' mean, after all?

Tired

Yoshio comes home every night exhausted to his bones, for menial labor is no easy task though the money is comparatively negligible, but he has Kiku's smile and Noriko's laugh to look forward to, so he always does.

School

On the third day of primary school, Noriko looks up from the boring sandbox and spots a timid-looking boy with fluffy brown hair and orange-brown eyes.

And suddenly, she remembers.